How was your experience with Gary Jones at Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago?
Dr. Jones has a good bedside manner and does a good job of explaining protocol and procedure. I admit, however, that this is because my husband and I already had a strong foundational knowledge of fertility diagnostics and treatment. If you're coming in without any knowledge, I'm not sure if the level of communcation and understanding would be the same. Overall, the patient doesn't seem the doctor very much, you deal mostly with your nurse care coordinator. When I did have questions for the doctor or needed an additional consult, he made himself available quickly. As a side note, I suspect that Dr. Jones might be on the conservative end with regard to additional procedures and protocols, and cancellations and postponements of the aforementioned if the conditions aren't just right, which can be a bit frustrating at times.
What's one piece of advice would you give a prospective patient of Gary Jones at Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago?
Be as specific as possible when asking about next steps and all the possible iterations of next steps.
During treatment, were you treated like a number or a human with Gary Jones at Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago?
As a patient, you mostly deal with your care coordinator, one of the nurses. My initial care coordinator, Diane, was phenomenal. She was consistently available to answer questions or give reassurance. She has since left the clinic, but my new care coordinator, Denise, appears to be just as attentive. It is still too early to know outcomes, as my next transfer has been delayed - like many - due to current events.
Describe the protocols Gary Jones used in your cycles at Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago and their degree of success.
I did an antagonist protocol for stims although I'm not entirely sure of the specifics anymore. No complications and cancellations and I had a good turnout of 11 fertilized embryos. We did a freeze all due to progesterone being low and a small fibroid needing to be removed.
Describe your experience with Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago.
Strengths - very responsive, excellent care coordinators, compassionate staff on the whole, doctor available to speak quickly if you need additional consults, shared risk plans available
Weaknesses - not much access to doctors routinely, battery of tests needed before each transfer (which I'm unsure how typical this is, but hurts the billfold if you're paying out of pocket, even on the shared risk plan)
Describe the costs associated with your care under Gary Jones at Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago.
We paid entirely out of pocket, save for a few procedures which were covered by our insurance. Because fertility treatment is not covered we pay for every consult, and many diagnostic services - bloodwork and imaging. Once we entered the shared risk plan we still had to pay for initial battery of testing before we entered into the program, then testing before each transfer as well as medication.
Describe Gary Jones's approach to eSET (elective single embryo transfer) vs. multiple embryo transfer at Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago.
The clinic strongly recommends single embryo transfer for someone in my age bracket and diagnosis (33, unexplained,) but with our transfer we were able to do a multiple embryo transfer with a signed waiver (no more than 2 for my age bracket and diagnosis.)